Comey Can't Explain Why or How He Misrepresented Abedin's Emails

[Flagg]

Gizmodo

Report: Comey Doesn't Know How to Explain That He Misrepresented Huma Abedin's Emails

Remember when FBI Director James Comey threw a bomb into the election by announcing that the agency was reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails? Remember his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee about those emails, just last week? Well, his statements may have been wildly inaccurate and he’s apparently trying to figure out how to fix it.

ProPublica, an independent, non-profit investigative journalism outfit with multiple Pulitzers, has a bombshell report that claims the FBI is scrambling to correct Comey’s misrepresentation of the emails found on Huma Abedin’s husband’s laptop. Abedin is married to Anthony Weiner, the former congressman who can’t stop sexting with strangers on Twitter.

In his testimony, Comey claimed that Hillary Clinton’s top aide, Abedin, forwarded “hundreds and thousands” of emails to her husband so that he could print them for her. He said that she made “a regular practice” of doing this and that 12 of the emails were classified. According to ProPublica’s sources, this isn’t exactly true.

The two sources, one of which is identified as being in “law enforcement”, claim that Comey exaggerated the FBI’s findings. Reportedly, “only a handful” of emails were forwarded to Weiner by Abedin. And now officials are saying that the various documents likely ended up on the laptop because of automatic backups from her BlackBerry. That explanation would fall in line with Abedin’s statement that she had no idea how the emails found their way onto Weiner’s laptop. And for the record, none of the 12 classified emails were marked classified at the time.

When Comey testified, Senator Ted Cruz was baffled that he wouldn’t consider the forwarding of thousands of classified documents to be a crime. Comey clarified:

...if I said that, I misspoke. She forwarded hundreds and thousands of emails, some of which contain classified information.
Today, former acting Attorney General Sally Yates testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee. When it was Ted Cruz’s time to ask her about Russian interference in the election, he elected to spend the bulk of his time asking Yates hypothetical questions about prosecuting someone who had done exactly what Comey testified Abedin was guilty of doing.

The gut-wrenching knowledge that Comey’s initial announcement about the emails may have gotten Donald Trump elected is bad enough. If he has misrepresented the FBI’s findings under sworn testimony after clearing all parties of wrongdoing, he’ll be in the running for the most hated man in America.

For the average Joe, this might simply serve as a reminder to be careful with automatic backups.

Fucking incompetent shitheel is still our FBI Director everyone!

[Thanas]

Of course he misrepresented the emails.

I mean that was blatantly clear considering Clinton was cleared the first time.

And of course there is no investigation into the seperate email servers of Trump and his guys.

[Flagg]

Of course he misrepresented the emails.

I mean that was blatantly clear considering Clinton was cleared the first time.

And of course there is no investigation into the seperate email servers of Trump and his guys.

But Clinton is corrupt. Epyveryone knows that. It's just common sense!

[Tsyroc]

Of course he misrepresented the emails.

I mean that was blatantly clear considering Clinton was cleared the first time.

And of course there is no investigation into the seperate email servers of Trump and his guys.

Maybe I'm interpreting your post incorrectly.

Because I agree, but because I think he should have sent the information the FBI got from the first investigation to the DOJ and left it up to them to decide whether to prosecute her or not. Which is how I think things are supposed to work. I don't think it is supposed to be up to the FBI to decide on prosecution or not.

I probably cut Comey more slack than most people because I think he was screwed from the beginning.

He knew he had more than enough for the DOJ to prosecute Clinton and/or prevent her from ever having a security clearance again but instead he punked out because Obama's DOJ was very unlikely to go through with prosecuting Clinton. Then Comey would have pissed off his current boss and, at the time, seemed likely to be on his way to really pissing off his future boss (who is not anywhere near as forgiving as Obama).

The second time around he had to have been taking all kinds of shit from the Right, from his own people in the FBI, and anyone who has ever had a security clearance through the US government. Sooo, he brings out that weak stuff late. I would be curious to find out how many people were swayed to not vote for Clinton because of the second round with the FBI. At that point it didn't make any difference to me but maybe it would have swayed enough people in the areas that counted. I lean towards it not being as important as Hillary likes to make it but I'm not entirely sure how big an impact she thinks it made. She clearly thinks it was important, but was it only because things were so close in certain states?

[Tvpnbb]

I would be curious to find out how many people were swayed to not vote for Clinton because of the second round with the FBI. At that point it didn't make any difference to me but maybe it would have swayed enough people in the areas that counted. I lean towards it not being as important as Hillary likes to make it but I'm not entirely sure how big an impact she thinks it made. She clearly thinks it was important, but was it only because things were so close in certain states?

Fivethirtyeight did an analysis of the situation and they came to the conclusion that Comey probably did cost Clinton the election, considering the dip in the polls after Comey's letter, although they can't be completely sure as the polls would likely have tightened anyway.